My Two Cents: Terrorism Is Terrorism, Regardless Of Color .......... written before the Texas shooting

It’s been just over a month since a white man opened fire on a crowd of people at a concert in Las Vegas, killing 58 and wounding over 500 others. And it’s been just a few days since a brown man drove a rental truck into a crowd of people in New York City, killing 8 and injuring eleven others.

Is one worse than the other? Well, in terms of numbers, clearly, but as John Donne said, "Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind.” So, the attacks are equally bad. And yet if you were to listen solely to _____ speak, the attack in New York is far worse, far more deadly, far more heinous, far more terroristic.

Simply, I’m guessing, because that man is brown.

Again, it’s been a month since the Las Vegas shooting and not one thing has been done. There was talk, in those first days after the shooting, of banning the bump stock which enabled the white terrorist to turn his semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons, allowing him to kill more people even faster!

And yet, today, it’s still legal in the United States of Guns to buy a bump stock because there has been no effort by the _____ Administration, or GOP—brought to you by the NRA—Congress to do anything about gun violence in this country and I don’t give a rat’s behind how you feel about guns.

We need sensible gun control in this country. But enough on that because I could, and have, go on and on about it.

Right after, right after, the terror attack on the streets of New York last week, both _____ and the Republicans politicized the tragedy—after demanding that the shooting in Vegas not be politicized—simply because, and please, if you have one, show me any other reason, the terrorist was brown-skinned and Muslim.

Can you see it? It’s clear ... when a white man totes forty weapons into a hotel, all adapted to kill as many people as possible, the GOP and their president do nothing. There’s no talk of terrorism, no discussion of his religion, or his immigration status. They say, and do nothing, except offer meaningless thoughts and prayers and then head to the banks to deposit their NRA checks.

But, if the terrorist is a person of color, especially a Muslim immigrant, commits an act of violence _____ takes to Twitter demanding the death penalty; the GOP again talks of walls and bans.

I mean, again, think about the driver of that rental truck last week; think what might have been said if he was white. He was a lone wolf, a deeply disturbed man. He would not be called a terrorist. That label is for the brown-skinned folks among us and that has to stop.

We have a race problem in this country and it starts at the top.

You aren’t a terrorist just because you’re brown-skinned; you’re a terrorist when you commit an act of terror, either shooting 600 people in Vegas, or nine people in a church, or several in a movie theaters, or a few at Planned Parenthood, or if you drive a truck into a crowd of people.

To suggest terrorists are only brown-skinned people is racist and wrong and not at all American. But it’s the way of the GOP and _____ to spread fear around this country, to keep you off-guard, while they take away your healthcare and your coal jobs and raise your taxes, remove equal rights protections, vilify the LGBT community, and rape the plane.